imagine that the volcano on mt. st. helens erupts again. all life is removed from the side of the mountain and has to recolonize. your first task as a geneticist for united states forest service is to estimate the frequency of the red allele in the lupine plants that colonize the site. you know that the lupine seeds came from a nearby population where the frequency of the red allele has consistently been approximately 0.2 for many generations. however, in the first year (i.e. first generation, before any local reproduction) on mt. st. helens, the red allele of this newly colonized population has a frequency of 0.9. what is the most likely explanation for this difference in allele frequency from the nearby population?



Answer :

Genetic drift as a result of founder effects and small population size.The most likely explanation for this difference in allele frequency from the nearby population is that the lupine plants that colonized the site had a higher than average number of red alleles.

Due to volcano eruption, many genes get destroyed which causes the loss of gene pool. Thus the frequency is decreased to a great extent. This causes the red alleles to come up and show their effect as the frequency of other alleles is eliminated. So due to less population and the drift in the genetic makeup, the red alleles got increase in population. Thus we can say that this is an effect of genetic drift and it supports the theory of founder effect.

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